Match Report by Alex Inch, Photos by Simon Grieve

An injury plagued Banbury slipped to their third successive defeat, losing 22-6 to Old Centralians. Sadly, for Banbury the match will be remembered because of serious injury again, last year’s player of the season, Jimmy Manley breaking his Fibula and dislocating his ankle in the third minute of the game.

Banbury Bulls had 12 unavailability’s for Saturday’s fixture and the last thing Banbury needed was another serious injury. In a devastating blow in only the third minute Jimmy Manley’s planted leg was trapped under a tackle resulting in a broken fibula and dislocated ankle. An ambulance was called for the second time in two weeks and the game was delayed for 45 minutes while paramedics attended to Jimmy Manley.

The game was restarted after both teams had warmed back up and Banbury did well to switch back into game mode after such a serious injury/long delay.

Old Centralians took the lead with a break from the halfway line. Showing some good hands, taking advantage of two on ones eventually saw Ross Hannaford score in the corner. Wayne Mulhern couldn’t convert from the side-line, but Old Cents took an early 5-0 lead.

Sam Carr-Archer limped off with a knee injury to further complicate things for the Bulls. Old Cents went further into the lead when a Sam Stoop pass was intercepted by Robert Winchle and he sprinted his way over out to the right. Wayne Mulhern couldn’t add the extras to leave it 10-0 at half time.

Ed Phillips kicked Banbury into the came at the beginning of the second half after Old Cents were penalised for being offside. 10-3.
The momentum was all with Banbury at this point, but Old Cents defence was solid, and Banbury couldn’t find the try their play deserved.

Banbury settled for another Ed Phillips penalty after Old Cents were penalised for not binding on to the scrum correctly. 10-6.

Despite the good spell for Banbury it was Old Cents who increased the lead. Owen Chandler caught and offload and sprinted his way over under the posts. Wayne Mulhern converted to make it 17-6.

With a victory no longer possible Banbury heads started to drop, and Old Cents scored another late try in extra time. Craig Ballinger driving over from close range. Wayne Mulhern couldn’t add the extras to leave it 22-6 at fulltime.

A disappointing loss. The Bulls did incredibly well to first overcome the injury crisis currently plaguing the club and the devastating blow of losing Jimmy Manley to serious injury in the third minute. At the 60-minute mark the Bulls really looked like they were going to take something from the game. The two late tries were harsh on the Bulls squad. Well done to all the players who stepped up.

Speaking to Head Coach Matt Goode:

22-6, probably a harsh score line but overshadowed by another serious injury, this time to Jimmy Manley “It’s so hard to get things right when you have horrible injuries like that. We hope Jimmy is back soon as possible and makes a full recovery. We were really disjointed today, we didn’t click. The forwards played well but as a team we didn’t generate enough. It’s tough, I’ll need to study the video to see what went wrong.”

Twelve unavailability’s today, you just can’t plan for that as a head coach, can you? “You really can’t, it was disjointed but it shows the strength in depth that we were nearly there, but it was amazing how many injuries and unavailability’s we had for this weekend. As a club we still had 3 teams out which is amazing but for the Bulls I’m bitterly disappointed we didn’t get anything from the game.

The week off probably comes at just the right time, do you think you’ll come back strong at home against Oxford Harlequins? “We always want to win a local derby. Having lost to Newbury at home, that’s the only loss I want there this season. We’ll be turning a new page and push on from there.”